Surgical techniques can be learned through the study of surgical procedures, viewing videos of surgeries, and/or observing and assisting in live surgeries under the instruction of a skilled surgeon. The current “hands on” apprenticeship method of teaching surgery and the philosophy of “see one, do one, teach one” can pose substantial risk to live patients in an operating or surgical room. Furthermore, the need for an appropriate live patient or “teaching case” can limit physician training, and can expose physicians and teaching hospitals to potential malpractice suits and increased insurance premiums. More recently, due to the risks of malpractice suits, fewer qualified physicians are teaching surgical procedures, resulting in fewer physicians who are well-trained in surgical procedures.
Cadavers can also be used to teach surgical procedures, but cadavers are expensive and pose risks of disease transmission to or by the physician. The cost to provide a cadaver lab and the ancillary personnel to staff the lab and perform training makes it unfeasible for many hospitals. As a result, these physicians may be required to travel to cadaver seminars thereby increasing the costs associated with cadaver training. For religious and cultural reasons, some physicians object to the use of cadavers to teach surgical procedures. Another drawback of using cadavers is that once a specific area of a cadaver has been operated on, the tissues are destroyed and cannot be used again to repeat the procedure. The application of preservatives, cooling, freezing, or other methods to prevent decomposition of cadaver tissue can affect the feel, softness, firmness, consistency, or texture, so that the cadaver tissue does not mimic living tissue. It can be challenging to develop realistic medical simulation tools for delivering high quality training to practitioners.